Story 11 - How to Save a Sect in Six Simple Steps (32)
Wealth’s Herald smiled at like I was a child. It was not pleasant! “Their signatures are on the contract. It’s not my fault that they didn’t read it fully before signing it. No matter what, they’ll still owe Chi Qi Tan.”
The two sect leaders grimaced. They were ready to back out of this treaty. Fuck. I couldn’t bla them for it either. The penalty for breaking this stupid contract was insane.
Noxious grabbed my sleeve under the table and tugged. “Master Lin, I assu you have a plan for this? We’ve co too far to fail just because of so rchant group.”
I glanced at Noxious and grinned. ::I’ve worked my ass off for this sect.::
“I know that.”
::I didn’t want more work put on my shoulders when I was already doing so much.::
“Master Lin?”
I held up a hand to forestall everyone, but they were still standing up and preparing to leave.
::Which is the reason I didn’t talk about how I reorganized and streamlined how the entire Indomitable Will Sect handles paperwork.::
“... What does that have to do with this?”
::What do you think a contract is?::
“Paperwork.”
::And I am the creator of its Dao.::
My poor in-na disciple was too stressed to listen properly. “Master Lin, this is no ti for your jokes. Hurry and do sothing! I’ll fight their Immortal Bone Creation leaders if I have to, but I’m still new to my realm! My chances of survival are only twenty percent.”
A whole twenty? That was pretty good considering their level disparity. He was definitely hiding so good poison recipes from .
I waved my hand more vigorously. “Orthodox Seniors, are you actually taking this swindler at his word when we haven’t exhausted all our options?”
“Options? They have no other option.” Wealth’s Herald scoffed. “That contract is free of loopholes! What do you expect them to do? Kill ? The Chi Qi Tan group will just return with our forces and allies to wipe out your sects and take what is owed!”
I gestured to the smug fucker and leaned toward Noxious. “Just look at him protesting too much.”
That got everyone’s attention. These assholes wouldn’t have gotten to their realm if they couldn’t sniff out weakness. Their sharp eyes turned to him.
A vein bulged on his forehead. “I am not!”
I grinned. “Then you’re too overconfident.”
The sect leaders slowly returned to their seats. Several of the elders from the opposition shot hostile glances at . I morized their faces.
I held the contract up and flicked it, infusing that part of it with more spiritual energy. “Sect leaders. Answer the question. When you signed this, were you aware of the terms of breaking the contract?”
“Sowhat,” Fairy Peerless Cacophony said grudgingly. “Wealth’s Herald ntioned double the price for the used-up tools and a small usage fee. He never stated that the fee was one high-tier spirit stone per weapon. That’s more than most of those weapons are worth!”
I nodded. As I suspected.
“I knew about it,” Dominant Restraint Master said, then briefly glanced at Little Spring behind , “but I wanted to destroy my long-ti enemy’s sect, and I thought there was nothing that could stop .”
“Then did you know that all the spiritual plants in the sect are worth over three tis what the weapons the Chi Qi Tan rchant group provided you with? And that’s before they continue to cultivate them in place of the Irrepressible Beast Blood Sect?”
“What?” Dominant Restraint Master looked at the alchemist in his group, Iron Fang, and glared. “I was not aware of that when I signed it.”
Everyone turned toward Wealth’s Herald as if they wanted to kill him imdiately. He smiled brightly. “What can I say? It’s just good business to get the most profitable contract. It’s not my fault that you were too excited about your upcoming conquest to read over everything carefully. Besides, we didn’t know if so of those plants would be destroyed or used up during your war. This is a trendous risk for us.”
“Financial risk, maybe, but you’re not risking your lives and futures fighting a war. Money can always be made again, but most of these cultivators only have one life.”
He shrugged nonchalantly. Those individuals obviously ant nothing to him.
The sect leaders glared at him with flushed faces. They must have realized just how badly and cruelly he’d taken advantage of them.
It reminded that the most brilliant people could still get fucked over if they couldn’t parse through legalese.
Hell, even that smart guy who fathered the video ga industry was so eager to earn a fortune that he signed a ridiculous non-compete agreent when he sold Atari. He believed it wouldn’t matter since he would never quit the company he co-founded, but in the end, he had to leave. That tossed him out of the budding industry he created for nearly a decade.
These sect leaders fell into a similar trap. After all, why would they think Chi Qi Tan, a large, well-known rchant group, would pull sothing so horribly lopsided when their sects were so powerful?
Unfortunately for them, unequal contracts filled with complex language and enchantnts, on top of stealing the natural resources from small continents like this one, were exactly how these companies made their billions of spirit stones.
Chi Qi Tan deserved to get fucked over. And I would be the one to do it.
I slamd my hand down on the paper, where I had infused my spiritual energy. A subtle glow spread through the page. “Considering the terrible and purposeful deception during the signing, I declare that this contract has parts of it that are unconscionable and cannot be enforced. It needs adjustnts.” The last word left my mouth filled with weight... sadly, no one noticed except . It made miss Early Rise Swift Brush.
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“Ha!” Wealth’s Herald laughed. “So what? Can you do anything about it?”
I pulled out a bottle of special Cerulean Star Pine ink and a fine brush spiritual tool I ‘borrowed’ from my martial nephew a while back. I dipped it in the ink, infused it with my spiritual energy, and conjured my Blue Lining Severability technique.
With a simple stroke, I directly changed the fee from one high-tier spirit stone to a single low-tier spirit stone. The simplicity of it was so beautiful that it caused the air around the contract to glow slightly. This apparently went unnoticed thanks to the sun shining brightly down on us.
Herald crossed his arms and scoffed. “Defacing a copy like that won’t do anything. You can’t just cross out things and have it be legitimate.”
Oh, this fucker would see.
Using my knowledge of this continent’s current economy, I rewrote the prices of the single-use items to be more reasonable. With every adjustnt that brought the numbers closer to reality, the enchantnt fought back harder. It refused to allow Chi Qi Tan to lose any more of its excessive profits. Eventually, a shallow, invisible barrier between the fine rabbit hair bristles and the paper ford.
Fortunately, my technique wasn’t simple. It subtly cut through all attempts to stop . To non-clerks — which apparently was everyone nearby — I would appear to mundanely pause briefly before making the next change.
Finally, I set my brush down and read over my work.
Even the birds on the arena’s roof were deathly silent.
Good, everything looked adequate.
I added a passage stating that signing would accept the changes made to the contract and that this new docunt would overrule any older versions, since it was fair to all parties involved. Then I created four signature lines.
I sent a ntal copy to all three people who signed the original. To the two sect leaders, I included additional instructions.
“Are these corrected terms acceptable to you?”
“Yes!” The Peerless Cacophony and Dominant Restraint Master enthusiastically responded.
“No!” Wealth’s Herald said and crossed his arms.
I stared at the rchant. “These adjustnts are fair and equitable for both sides.”
He once again smiled at like I was a child. “Sure, but Chi Qi Tan will never accept this change. Their opinions are what really matter here. Not yours, or anyone else’s.”
Ha! He admitted it! That was good enough. Everything else he said was nonsense.
I passed the paper and my pen to Noxious.
“Sign it under ‘Third-party Witness’.”
He did so in thin, doctor-like strokes, then used his spiritual energy to float my brush to the Harmonious Sound Sect’s leader. She quickly wrote out her elegant signature, then passed everything over.
Dominant Restraint Master put his na down in large blocky calligraphy. Then, with a vicious smile, he jumped over to the rchant and shoved the contract into the fucker’s hands. “Sign it.”
The coward took a step back. “Even if I do, Chi Qi Tan still has the original. Doing this is pointless!”
The sect leader grabbed him by his collar and pulled the asshole over to their Leashed Claws table before his security team could do anything about it. By the ti they drew their weapons, half of the elders of the orthodox sects surrounded them. Their foreheads were quickly covered in a layer of cold sweat.
Herald threw the paper and brush down onto the table and crossed his arms. “Threaten all you want. I’m not signing.”
“I thought it didn’t matter what we did here since even if you sign it, Chi Qi Tan still has the original?”
He attempted to pressure with his Nascent-Soul-level energy, but Noxious put his arm in front of and blocked it.
Every Immortal Bone Creation expert at the table pressured him in retaliation. He coughed up a mouthful of blood. So red droplets splashed onto the paper before disappearing.
He fell to his hands and knees and coughed up another mouthful of blood. “Stop! I’ll sign it.”
“Say you agree to it.”
“I agree! I agree! I agree!”
The man understood that important things should be said three tis.
When the spiritual pressure stopped, he relaxed and wiped his mouth with a handkerchief.
It took him a minute to recover, but he stood back up. He glared at everyone. With a shaking hand, he picked up my brush. When he touched the tip to the paper, he discovered that the ink had already been used up.
Before he could say anything, I perfectly threw my ink over to him so it slid next to the contract without spilling. He scowled but dipped it in the bottle and scrawled his na on the line I created for that purpose.
Dominant Restraint Master grabbed my brush before Herald could throw it at , and sent it and my ink gently back over using his spiritual energy.
Wealth’s Herald ford a hand seal and threw out a blue fla. It lit the paper on fire.
He smiled in triumph.
One of the elders from the Leashed Claws sect gasped and dumped a shitload of water over everything, but it was too late. The contract had already burned up.
The silence grew as everyone stared at the hideous scorch mark on the once beautiful table.
“See,” Wealth’s Herald said. “All this was absolutely pointless.”
He pulled out his own copy and waved it in front of everyone. It was exactly like the original paper before I fixed it.
Dominant Restraint Master tightened his old hands into fists as if stopping himself from strangling the man.
Peerless Cacophony bit her lip and looked at the burn mark regretfully.
“Was it really pointless?” I grinned and tapped my palm to get the fucker to look at the contract he was waving.
He slapped it down on the wet table in ti to see the text change right in front of everyone’s eyes. It turned into an exact copy of the one they’d just signed. “What? No!”
He turned to Dominant Restraint Master. “Take out your copy.”
When he did, it had also been replaced by the new contract.
Everyone stared at like I’d pulled so kind of magic trick.
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“Didn’t you all know?” I aningfully used my flat hand to cover my fist. “Paperwork always beats spirit stones? Muahahaha!”
Little Spring mumbled sothing about a terrible pun under his breath. I must have imagined that because it was definitely an aweso pun! The best I’d ever co up with.
Wealth’s Herald grabbed his contract furiously and looked it over. He scratched at the lines I’d written. He swallowed. “Impossible... Impossible!”
He threw that blue fire technique at it once more, but this one wouldn’t burn. His copy had enchantnts added to it to prevent destruction.
I grinned. “Shouldn’t you be reporting this new fair agreent to your superior?”
His face practically turned purple. “T-this isn’t the end of this! Chi Qi Tan will figure out how you ssed with the contract, and they’ll take what’s theirs!”
I shook my head. “They can’t. Because my adjustnts were fair to all sides.” Besides, my paperwork skills were definitely best on this continent.”
“We’ll see about that!”
He shoved the paper back into his ring and stord off with his entourage.
That fucker will be lucky if his bosses let him live after this.
I glanced at Noxious. ::Never underestimate the usefulness of an excellent clerk!::
He swallowed. “Yes, Master Lin.”
Since I didn’t have the right type of stationery and ink, I quickly made a copy of the contract on a jade slip and passed it to Peerless Cacophony. She nodded to in appreciation.
Vengeful Siren stood up, taking everyone’s attention off . “Now that you’ve settled that issue thanks to our sect’s Elder Linlin, let’s continue to discuss the terms of the ceasefire and treaty.”
While all three sides started conversing in earnest, I glanced behind to check on the kid. His brows were furrowed.
::Sister Lin, I’ve been trying to figure it out, but I still don’t understand how you did it.::
::Did what?::
::To , it looked like you just crossed out so things with blue ink and added the right prices... It really seed like you did nothing special at all.::
::Wow, thanks.::
::No. I an. Obviously, you did sothing incredible!::
::That’s better.::
::So, can you explain how you made your version of the contract the legitimate one? And more importantly, how did you make it replace the other contracts?!::
::Can’t you tell? That was just my Dao of Paperwork.::
::Sister Lin!::
The kid probably thought it was magic at this point. ::Alright, alright. Listen up, because I’m only going to explain it once!::
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